Washington, D.C.—Our Task, an independent, nonprofit network of young adults, will honor the United Nations Environment Programme and three sustainability think tanks—Earth Policy Institute, Global Footprint Network, and Worldwatch Institute—with the 2013 Our Task Global Thinking Award. The presentation will occur at the Earth 2100 Conference.

Our Task members are concerned about the Earth they will soon inherit. “The current global Plan A—more of the same—will be a disaster for young people everywhere and for the whole community of life on Earth,” said Chase Stahl, an “Our Tasker” at George Mason University. “We are studying the “Plan Bs” being developed by scholars and activists and developing our own ‘Youth Plan B’ to outline how we would like to manage human affairs when it is our turn.”

The Global Thinking Award recognizes the pioneering “Plan B” work of these organizations:

The Earth Policy Institute, for its World on the Edge report, which outlines specific steps needed to prevent global environmental and economic collapse.

Global Footprint Network, for its science-based National Footprint Accounts, which measure humanity’s demand on the planet’s ecological resources against the ecosystem’s ability to meet those demands. The data appear in numerous studies and publications, including World Wildlife Fund’s popular biennial Living Planet Report.

Worldwatch Institute, for its thoughtful work on the cultural and institutional changes needed to achieve sustainability, especially State of the World 2010.

The United Nations Environment Programme, for its pathbreaking report, Towards a Green Economy, which identifies massive misallocations of capital and provides a new method of measuring progress toward sustainability.

“All of us now—especially us young people—face combined environmental challenges concerning climate, water, poverty, and extinctions,” said Monica Moore, Program Coordinator at Our Task. “These ‘global thinking’ organizations are helping us all to confront this ‘global problematique’ and to make the transition to a mutually enhancing relationship between humans and Earth.”

“The Our Task Global Thinking Award is presented annually by the young people of Our Task to organizations and individuals who are making a significant contribution to creating a mutually enhancing relationship between humans and Earth,” said Dr. Gerald O. Barney, Executive Director, Our Task.